Since a recent low in February 2010, total payroll employment has grown by 1.3 million, or an average of 106,000 per month.

Employment in the service-providing sector continued to expand in February 2011, led by a gain of 47,000 in professional and business services.

Health care employment continued to increase in February 2011 (+34,000). Over the prior 12 months, health care had added 260,000 jobs, or an average of 22,000 jobs per month.

Manufacturing employment rose by 33,000 in February 2011. Manufacturing has added 195,000 jobs since its most recent trough in December 2009; durable goods manufacturing added 233,000 jobs during this period.

Construction employment grew by 33,000 in February 2011, following a decline of 22,000 in January that may have reflected severe winter weather.

Transportation and warehousing employment increased by 22,000 in February 2011; half of that gain was in truck transportation (+11,000).

These employment data are from the Current Employment Statistics program and are seasonally adjusted. Data for the most recent two months are preliminary. To learn more, see “The Employment Situation — February 2011” (HTML) (PDF), news release USDL-11-0271.

Self-employment in the United States
Trends in self-employment by various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, including both the unincorporated and the incorporated self-employed, as well as data on paid employees who work for the self-employed.